For the Chinese men's football team, 2019 can be described as "winter" to "winter". Although there have been fond memories of a 5-0 victory over the Maldives and a 7-0 victory over Guam, it is still cold after all.
From the Asian Cup knockout defeat to the Iranian team in January this year, to the 1-2 away game to the Syrian team in the World Preliminary Top 40 Asian Cup in November, the head coach Lippi resigned twice without hesitation and stayed. The Chinese men's football team was given two sad backs and "a chicken feather". After Lippi leaves office, who will take up the important task of leading the team to continue to compete in the world preliminaries? How far can the coach lead the team? They are really big question marks.
The national football player retired after losing to the Syrian team in the Asian Top 40 World Cup. Photo courtesy/Vision China
Lippi resigned twice within a year
For the Chinese men’s football team, the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year is not a good memory. Although he succeeded in reaching the top eight, his sleepwalking loss to the Iranian team made the previous efforts into a bubble. At the same time, with the title of the oldest team in the average age of all participating teams, the national football team was once hopeless. After the Asian Cup, Lippi resigned and Cannavaro took over temporarily, and finally led the team to lose to the Thai team 0 to 1 in the China Cup and handed over a bad report card.
For a while, the outside world was full of pessimism towards Chinese men's football. However, in April, everything seemed to be turning around. Lippi suddenly expressed his willingness to become the national football coach again, and at the same time the Chinese Football Association began to accelerate the pace of introducing foreign players. In June, Elkerson of Guangzhou Evergrande became the first naturalized player to join the national football team in the history of Chinese football and was renamed "Exon".
It can be said that Lippi, after returning again, had an exciting moment with the national football team. In the first two group matches of the World Preliminary 40, the national football team defeated the Maldives and Guam 5-0 and 7-0 respectively. The performance of Exon and another naturalized player Li Ke is obvious to all. The national football is finally not overturned by the underdogs, the forwards will finally score goals, and Wu Lei, who went to La Liga to play, has also become stronger. Such a national football once gave everyone good hope.
The national football team was beaten back to its original form
But what I did not expect is that from the national football team to the Philippines, things got worse. Although the whole game has the advantage, the national football team has always been unable to knock on the opponent's goal. Exxon was in a bad state, and Lippi was pushed to the forefront by a 0-0 score in the away game. But at that time, everyone's mood was still relatively optimistic. After all, the away conditions were bad, and the national football's offense was not useless. As long as they do not lose to the Syrian team in the next away game, there is still great hope for the national football team to advance to the top 12 in the Asian region.
However, Chinese men's football and Lippi did not usher in salvation. On November 14, the score of the Sino-Syrian battle was fixed at 1 to 2. Lippi unilaterally announced his resignation in a post-match press conference: "We lost tonight. My annual salary is very high. If I lose, I take full responsibility, so I now announce my resignation and no longer serve as the head coach of the Chinese team.” After speaking, Lippi immediately got up and left without waiting for the translator to finish the translation.
What made Lippi resolutely resign when the team clearly still hopes to advance to the top 12, I am afraid that the Chinese men's football brings him too strong a sense of powerlessness!
Who can handle the Chinese men's football?
Now Lippi has been printed and left, and who will take over the Chinese men's football handsome mark is still unknown. But the only certainty is that the new coach has taken over an extremely difficult task.
Judging from the situation of the top 40 games, the current national football team's points are less than 15 points of the Syrian team, and the Philippines team has the same 7 points, only ranking second in the group with a goal difference. The Syrian team has scored 8 points more than the national football team in one more game. Even if the national football team wins the next four games, it is still possible that the points can not beat the Syrian team. In other words, if the national football team wants to qualify first in the group, the initiative is no longer in their own hands.
Of course, strictly speaking, it is not without hope for the national football team to advance to the top 12. First of all, on the schedule, the national football team will return next yearThere are 3 home games and 1 away game. Among them are the Philippines, Maldives and Syria at home. Only one away game is played against Guam. Compared with this year's one-host three-off schedule, next year's schedule is obviously more advantageous. At the same time, the final match of the top 40 of the national football team is at home against the Syrian team, which also allows the national football team to prepare more targeted.
Secondly, in accordance with AFC regulations, the first place in each group of the top 40 can advance to the top 12. At the same time, the 4 best second-placed teams can also advance. And since Qatar, the host of the next World Cup, which has automatically won the right to participate in the World Cup, also participated in the top 40. Therefore, once Qatar ranks in the top 12, the second-ranked team in each group will also be ranked fifth. Advance to the top 12.
However, there must be a premise behind these good expectations, that is, the remaining 4 games of the national football team must all score 12 points. Can the current national football team do it?
Our reporter Li Li
Chief editor: Cheng Lu
